The Startup Owner's Manual

Who Is This Book For?

THIS BOOK IS FOR ALL ENTREPRENEURS and uses the term startup literally hundreds of times. But what exactly is a startup? A startup is not a smaller version of a large company. A startup is a temporary organization in search of a scalable, repeatable, profitable business model. At the outset, the startup business model is a canvas covered with ideas and guesses, but it has no customers and minimal customer knowledge.

But we’ve only defined the words startup, entrepreneur, and innovation halfway. These words mean different things in Silicon Valley, on Main Street, and in Corporate America. While each type of startup is distinct, this book offers guidance for each one.

A startup is a temporary organization in search of a scalable, repeatable, profitable business model.

Small Business Entrepreneurship: In the United States, the majority of entrepreneurs and startups are found among 5.9 million small businesses that make up 99.7 percent of all U.S. companies and employ 50 percent of all nongovernment workers. These are often service-oriented businesses like drycleaners, gas stations and convenience stores, where entrepreneurs define success as paying the owners well and making a profit, and they seldom aspire to take over an industry or build a $100 million business.

Scalable startups are the work of traditional technology entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs start a company believing their vision will change the world and result in a company with hundreds ...